Email, and the River That Runs Through It

Written By:James C. Wong, iContact Communications Manager

In October of 2009, Jessica E. Vascellaro if the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) wrote an article titled “Why Email No Longer Rules…” In her article, Jessica states that “Email has had a good run as king of communications. But its reign is over…”

The article cites how a constant stream of communication using social networking channels has become the new and trendy way to communicate. However, to say that email is dead when several industry resources have cited continued industry growth in the email marketing sector, is a bit premature. Social Media is a technological and social trend that is still far too early in its digital infancy to make long term statements about its relevance and longevity as a primary method of communication.

Ultimately, saying that email’s reign is over, is like saying that people should no longer use fax machines due to the advent of printers with integrated scanners. I personally know of several individuals and organizations that still rely heavily on fax machines in lieu of relatively cheap scanner technology available today.The River That Runs Through ItSocial networking channels like Twitter and Facebook have fueled the public’s interest in up-to-the-moment updates and news feeds from their friends on these networks. These individual networks act as “streams” of information, and most internet savvy users have started using stream aggregators that combine streams from various networks into one primary river of updates. Jessica quoted David Liu, an executive at AOL, referring to this constant stream of social updates as “a river that continues to flow as you dip into it.”

Unfortunately, like a fisherman fishing for rainbow trout swimming up and down a river, following conversations and capturing relevant information requires constant review of the stream. This has become a heavy burden in regards to time consumption by many internet users, some of which have already started to take a hiatus from their favorite social networks.The HubWhile a majority of internet users that use social networking channels are sticking around for the long haul, this internet communication trend has hardly killed or ended the reign of email, especially when you consider the fact that every single social network requires a valid email address to create a user account. With the integration of social networks with mobile devices, email has become even more important, as internet users struggle to keep up with private messages, friend requests, comments and updates from their friends on various networks.

Therefore, instead of laying down and throwing in the proverbial “towel,” email has actually transformed into a communication hub that bridges almost all of an internet user’s social networks. Weekly updates from services like Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and many others (including the hundreds of applications available for each network), have brought back to life the need to have and maintain a healthy inbox.The Take AwayEmail is in fact, still alive and growing strong. Internet users will always have the need to share private conversations, file attachments and sign up for various online communities, services and websites. Without a centralized hub for communication, all that would be left are scattered channels of communication requiring an even more excessive amount of time to check for new updates, messages, and updates. Similar to services like AOL’s Lifestream, which aggregates multiple network streams into one, email consolidates notifications from all your social networks into one consolidated private channel — your inbox.

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Jun 30, 2010Written by James Wong, who has written 34 articles for the iContact Blog.